Question for the Campfire Intelligentsia. The ranch I hunt has sagebrush encroaching on some of the roads. Getting to the point where it leaves some scratches on the paint. I'm thinking about taking along a hedge trimmer or a weedeater or some other contraption to hack it back some. I don't want to waste too much time or energy so what do you think is the best option?

Just drive on through it!

I never worried about the paint. It's hunting for God sake!

Is it your ranch?

Wait for a good drought and then burn it

Go through in the spring with a sprayer loaded with 2-4-D. Does a great job.

A sling blade or a grubbing hoe.

Yep.

Did you ask the rancher?

Not yet but I will.

Agent Orange or Napalm.

Just looking to trim it back some, not remove any plants.

Cut it and sell it to the college town hipster shops as smudge sticks to cover up the weed smoke. They’ll pay a premium for the purple sage!

OMG

It's desert pinstripe

Go with it !

Agent orange was 2,4 D. And 2, 4, 5-T.

When I was a kid here in TX and got my first nice pickup, one of my buddies called it Mesquite pinstripes. 🤠

Problem is, unintended acres may burn. And if you set fire and it burns onto other land you could have a problem.

what cha need is a mechanically sound ole Land Cruiser w/340K miles

Who gives a chidt if you rub against some sage brush

Them telliban don't...ask joe

Yeah right Mr Spotless clean vehicle man.....lol

That would be great but I don't have one! I pinstriped my old truck but trying to wait a while before I do this one.

Gosh.....really?

When I buy a new truck I take it down to Sycamore wash and run it through the mesquite... get it over with early.

Kent

just happen to have this '01 F/S

Before I start building it.......

here's the clean one.......AZ native....'03....no a speck of rust anywhere..204K miles

He goes by 'Bubba' (:

Spotless and stripe free.

That SUV screams "I have a pod coffee maker on board."

'03 is well equipped

pushes scales at 7K

+2

first off road trip.....Mar '21

busted up dirt biker.....broken femur & collar bone

poor kid layed there 2 hrs waiting for helio

Dang, I haven't seen a rock dent, yet!
Bent the Ranch Hand on mine, scratches don't count! (unseen rock)

They make battery operated hedge trimmers? You won't believe what those will take down.

Jesus man, we went from brushing up against a little sagebrush to running over dirt bikers!

Bet you have a skidplate...lol

nah

this 16 YO kid was feelin' cocky.......ya know

up a dry wash haulin' azz on his bike...hit a boulder..................

Didn't think he'd get a helio ride to SLC that day

If I was that rancher I'd tell you to find a new place to hunt and don't let the gate hit your ass on the way out...mb

Like........

If a few little brush marks bother you, get a good, protective coating of dried mud on it first......

People really do worry about use marks? Enough to start threads about how anal they are?

I've still got a hundred little shiny spots over the mud from a hail storm 3 weeks ago.

And Russian olive will leave you with some nice stripes.

I have not met a rancher that cared if you got ride of sagebrush.

Russian Olive......man that's some mean schhidt......

deer & birds luv it

I whack every new growth I see around my place

Local counties...if not all statewide have had a program to totally eradicate it

This ole '98 Taco wasn't ever afraid of sage brush......or russian olive trees

Drove it 12 yrs......damm wish I had it back.............

+1

went by the name.

'Jsck's truck'

yep.....set the park brake hard..................

Went fishing with Jerral ONE DAMN TIME!!!!🤬

Jerral fished.
I spent my time,
"Don't let that limb scratch my boat."
"Push us back so I won't bump that stump."
"Look out, that snag is gonna scrape the side of the boat!"
.....etc, etc, etc....

Jerral was a "neat-freak". That in itself wasn't the problem.
The problem was he made everyone around him miserable with his nit picking.

If you're that worried about scratches on your vehicle, invest in a 4 wheeler or S×S for narrow roads.

This old Tacoma has done pretty well. It was about 8 or 9 years newer at the time but already older and the only time that I ever really got it stuck. As in about three hours worth of being stuck several miles from a paved road and working saplings under the tires and rocking it back and fourth before finally getting traction shortly after dark and covered in mud by that time.

It was late season grouse season on an unfamiliar backroad right after a fresh dusting of snow covered up the thinly iced over but still soft mud hole.

Machete. If you have ok'd it with landowner.

You wanna trim brush back?
10 feet would work on my place - for a little while!

Back to the sagebrush...Forget the weed eater or hedge trimmer. Use a small chain saw. That stuff is tough. The best thing is to cut it at ground level but you can cut the main branches on the road side. The hedge trimmer will probably cut off the top foot but it'll just grow back and you'll have to do it again.

There's a place along a river where we like to camp. To get back on the road, you have to pull forward so your front wheels are almost on the pavement to see around the 6' high sage. Last year I took a chainsaw and did some serious pruning to cut it back enough to be safe. It wasn't enough to really show but you could easily see down the road. The next time we went there, someone else had liked what I did and they did more - a LOT more. They must have cut out 30 or 40 whole plants to the ground. They even hauled it all away.

I'd rather drive through a mile of sage brush than a hundred yards of snow brush.

LMAO!!

OP wouldn't last one day hunting out here if that finicky. He'd go nutz in short order.

Trim bush, now we're talking!